Links
Maybe Now's Not the Time for a Culture War
Maybe This Isn’t Such a Good Time to Prosecute a Culture War:
[A]s he sees it, the path to re-election lies with the instincts that brought him to power in the first place. With enough racist demagogy, Trump seems to think, he’ll close the gap with Biden and eke out another
Links
Messages on Each Device in Your Life
Gruber serving up a little of his own claim chowder:
So I thought iMessages addressed to a phone number should only go to your iPhone (and not your iPad or Mac, let alone your Apple Watch (which was years away from being released) or glasses (which remain years away now)), and Phillips thought iMessages should
Links
EARN IT Act Still Ain't Good
The Earn It Act Threatens Our Online Freedoms. New Amendments Don’t Fix It.
The July 2 manager’s and Leahy amendments attempt to respond to some of the concerns that I and others have raised about EARN IT. But they perpetuate the basic underlying problem: if passed, even in this amended form, the bill
Links
Introducing YarnBuddy
Becky Hansmeyer:
YarnBuddy is a project tracker and a row counter. That means its primary job is to help you
Links
My Body is a Confederate Monument
Opinion | You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument - The New York Times
I have rape-colored skin. My light-brown-blackness is a living testament to the rules, the practices, the causes of the Old South.
If there are those who want to remember the legacy of the Confederacy, if they
Links
Is Quibi a Figment of my Imagination?
Is anyone watching Quibi?
Instead, Quibi has foundered. The app’s ranking dropped to No. 284 by mid-June. A handful of shows, such as a reboot of Reno 911!, seem to have found an audience (it’s impossible to know precisely how large an audience, since Quibi, like other streamers, doesn’t release numbers)
Links
Edge is the New Safari is the New IE?
Microsoft is forcing Edge on Windows users with a spyware-like install - The Verge
If I told you that my entire computer screen just got taken over by a new app that I’d never installed or asked for — it just magically appeared on my desktop, my taskbar, and preempted my next website launch — you’
Links
I Won’t Do It, but Only Because You Told Me I Should Do It
Opinion | How America Lost the War on Covid-19
And there’s surely something to this. I don’t think any other advanced country (but are we still an advanced country?) has a comparable number of people who respond with rage when asked to wear a mask in a supermarket. There definitely isn’t any
Taking Payments on Your Own in 2020
I know we’ve moved on since WWDC, but I wanted to keep talking about taking payments for your software outside the App Store, and how I think many people have an unfair view of making payments through anyone not named Apple as some sort of security nightmare.
A few weeks ago I wrote about
Links
The UI Changes Between Catalina and Big Sur
Andrew Denty has a great collection of comparisons between the current and upcoming versions of macOS.
I have not installed Big Sur yet, mainly because the only Mac in my life is my work Mac, and while it is cleared for betas, I have no interest in risking anything breaking at this early stage in
Links
Tom Hanks Ain't Happy Greyhound Won't Be in Theaters
Tom Hanks talking to The Guardian:
But Greyhound has been an especial labour of love for him, one he sweated over for almost a decade, and it is one of those sweeping war movies that really should be seen on the big screen. So the change in plans has been, he says, “an absolute heartbreak.
design
Design is a Series of Overcorrections
I’ve been watching my fair share of WWDC sessions this week and one thing I kept noticing were times Apple engineers explained new features by taking subtle jabs at their old versions of those same features.
A great example of this are the new buttons on watchOS 7 that show up at the top
Game
My Review of The Last of Us Part 2 (SPOILERS AHEAD)
🚨 It’s hard to talk about this game without getting into spoilers, so check out this tweet for my spoiler-
Gamers Cancelled
Fuck It: Gamers Canceled - Giovanni Colantonio
The Super Smash Bros. community is in shock today after dozens of people came forward with sexual assault and pedophilia allegations against many, high-profile players like — you know what, I’m so tired. Gamers are canceled. All of them. Fuck it.
I mean, Jesus Christ, how many times
google
Blowing a 10 Year Lead
Google blew a ten-year lead - Second Breakfast
In 2010, I predicted that by 2020 Chrome OS would be the most popular desktop OS in the world. It was fast, lightweight, and $0.
And:
Then something happened at Google. I’m not sure what. But they stopped innovating on cloud software.
Docs and Sheets haven’
How to Share Podcast Clips from Castro
This is likely old news to most people reading this site, but I made a short video over on my A Better Computer YouTube channel to show how simple it is to share fun moments from your favorite shows to social media (or just save them for yourself!).
I don't ever say it
Apple
Apple Silicon Mac Will Have Touch Screens
Quinn Nelson put out a video yesterday about "Big Sur's Big Secret"
I should have shared this thought earlier, but from the moment this year's WWDC keynote ended, I was convinced every Mac made with Apple Silicon is going to have a touch screen. The UI changes in this
Injecting Yourself Into the Relationship
Why AnyList Won’t Be Supporting Sign In with Apple - AnyList Blog
One problem is that most Apple IDs are tied to an iCloud email address. So most accounts created via Sign in with Apple will use an iCloud email address. But many of those iCloud email addresses are unused and unchecked, because a customer’